Salt Dwarves
Salt Dwarves are merciless dangerous people who are just as hated as the god under them to such an extent that foreign dwarves are met with just as much animosity. Spending most of their time underwater within massive moving fortress like ships, they surface to raid and pillage adventures and towns that dare come too close to the coast. No care for the nuances of life, Salt Dwarves are driven by the vices of greed to continue to build their underwater empire, and eventually, take Halintar as a whole. Physical Features If you can somehow get underneath all of that heavy armor Salt Dwarves adorn themselves in, you can tell they are a good bit different than regular dwarves, and more closely resemble Duergar with some key differences. Salt Dwarves grow to be around 4 to 5 feet tall, and weigh around 300 pounds. Their skin is murky and pale like the waters they inhabit, they look older than they you’d think. Both men and women grow beards, although female dwarves tend to have shorter ones. Salt Dwarves hair ranges from brown to a muddled gray, although some accounts of red haired Salt Dwarves do exist Salt Dwarves can live up to 250 years old, although they don’t tend to live that long due to a Bactria in the sea of salt that can finish off middle age Salt Dwarves fairly quickly. Salt Dwarves are fairly muscular due to training that they go through at young ages to become agents of destruction for the coast or to build heavy machinery such as harpoon guns, submarines, and turtletanks. Salt Dwarves wear casual clothing when away from public eye or in comfortable situations, favoring overalls and red t-shirts, almost every salt dwarves favorite color is red btw, no reason it just is. Salt Dwarves also like wearing baggy clothing that they can keep their loot in, one of the best gifts one could receive is a bag of holding. The armor they wear on the surface is heavy diving armor tailored to their bodies, covering up most of their body and staring through a dull eye. Culture From being concieved, salt dwarves are taught to work in society by their elders in rigorous training programs that begin as early as the age of 5. Salt dwarves born with deformities that can hinder them from being successful in society are taken in a ship and thrown out in the ocean to drown. Their is no purpose for a dwarf that can’t work. Salt dwarves can go into three separate fields at the age of 15, they can become Scavengers, Marksmen, or inventors. A Scavenger is considered the lowest out of the three occupations, but is necessary. Their is actually an entire month of celebration dedicated to this job as a result, where the pay rolls are reversed and Scavengers get to live lives of luxury for a full month. Regardless, a Scavenger mines for salt that they give to the Yellow Dragons, or magical crystals that grow at the bottom of the sea. Scavengers are also the first to explore the coast for settlements and adventures, take them out, and loot what is left. They also clean ships and build them for Inventors, or travel with marksmen on journeys up the Tzuu River or outside of Halintar entirely. Scavengers are the gruntiest of grunts in society, and have a tough time getting out of this slump, education being difficult to attain after being assigned. A Marksman is a more adventurous Salt Dwarf and are sent out on missions by dwarves in power to complete task and stay informed of the world. Marksmen are pilots of large scuba equipment, and slavers, stealing orc children and raising them to be bloodthirsty killers. Marksmen are highly proficient in ranged weaponry as well, if at a young age their instructors can tell they are talented, they are taught in the way of crossbows and harpoon guns. Marksmen have their on sect of ranks as well that will probably be elaborated more in the Dukes of Salt stuff, but the highest rank one can obtain is that of Admiral. Inventors are by far the most valuable Salt Dwarves in society, and are tasked with coming up with blueprints for new devices and technologies to make scavengers and marksmen more efficient at their jobs, and to serve a grander purpose of taking Halintar for the dwarves again after the injustices that have been done upon them. Inventors have access to innumerable amounts of funds and resources with no middlemen to stop them from working. This is one of the reasons why Salt Dwarves tend to have much more complex technology then other races seem to have access too. Overall, Salt Dwarves are an inherently greedy race, with a hatred for the gods of Halintar save Balktan. Salt Dwarves are taught to be desensitized to killing and stealing at very young ages if it is done to other races or communities other than their own, but their is a spark of ingenuity and progress behind this that is both advanced and frightening altogether. History SPOILERS WILL EDIT LATER Playing a Salt Dwarf Salt Dwarves can be reformed if you do their backstory right, but they have two fundamentals to keep in mind. They are distrustful of other races due to prejudices ingrained into them, and they have a insatiable greed for progress. A Salt Dwarf may be travelling with a party for monetary gain only, or trying to see if it will lead to a bigger picture they can exploit. Salt Dwarves are easily offended by prejudices that other races have of them however, and can get a bit hot-headed as a result. Isolationist, but free to work if the job will benefit them, A salt dwarf is a rutheless companion. They also don’t talk much… uhhh.. yeah Ability Score Increase Salt Dwarves get a plus 2 to con and a plus 2 to either int or wisdom, with a minus 2 in charisma Age Salt Dwarves can live to be 250, but at middle age, they can suffer from a disease in the sea of salt and have their lives cut short. Alignment Due to conditioning, Salt Dwarves are taught to care about themselves, and their people as a whole, they will most likely always have the evil alignment unless they were raised by another society, although their tendency towards greed will probably always keep them in the neutral chaotic category. Size Salt Dwarves are 4-5 feet tall and weigh about 300 pounds as an adult. They thicc Speed Salt Dwarves have a speed of 25 feet, your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor Superior Dark Vision Salt Dwarves can see 120 feet in front of them in the dark due to living in dim environments as youths. the ocean is a cold unforgiving place Slight Dwarven Resistence You have +2 on saving throws against being poisoned, and resistance to poison. If you are over 125, you have -2 on saving throws and are weak to poison Unreasonable Salt Dwarves have a natural advantage against charisma abilities in general, as they are naturally distrustful of other races. Charisma checks against you have disadvantage, and you have advantage on all charisma saving throws. this doesn’t work against other dwarven races however. Proficiency bonuses You have proficency with harpoon guns, heavy armor, hammers, and harpoons Languages Salt Dwarves are taught both Dwarven and Common, although you arent especially good at speaking common. You can also speak to other salt dwarves discreetly by pounding on armor in a morse code sort of way Pressure Resistant Due to living in low pressure environments, Salt Dwarves are naturally built to withstand force damage, You have resistance to force damage. Trigger Fingers Salt Dwarves have really good aim, ranged attacks get a +2 bonus if you dedicate both hands to whatever you are doing Unhindered You can walk through difficult terrain with no problem if you have heavy armor on, and your path actually destroys difficult terrain for each 5by5 space you walk in. Category:Homebrew Category:Races Category:WIP